Our Honeymoon Location Spoiler!

Hello beautiful people! We are officially 23 days until the wedding which means, to my delight, that we are a 25 days away from our Honeymoon!!!

It’s incredible how the time has gone, the memories we’ve made and all of the decisions that have happened for both our wedding day and our honeymoon trip! But we’ve kept the location on the DL! But not for long….

Jacob and I will be boarding a plane and traveling to Germany for our honeymoon! We will be based in in Berlin and we will be traveling during our time there to different locations in Germany.

The first location will be to Munich! There we plan on getting our fill of castles and classic Germany. This includes culture, music, food, beer halls and history that has taken place there!

The next location will be Cologne! We have lots of plans for a more artistic day spent there. We want to go to art museums, check out modern architecture and street art and try out some fusion cuisine.

Our last travel location will be the furthest from Berlin and that’s Amsterdam! We want to go on canal rides, sit in outdoor cafes, visit gorgeous greenhouses and other romantic places.

Besides these three day trips most of our time will be spent in Berlin, getting to know the life there better. This will be my third time to Berlin and honestly its a dream come true. In past trips I have gone with others and their partners and I’ve always said to myself that one day I want to experience Berlin with my special one- and here we are!

Picking our location was both overwhelming and also swift! We kept going back and forth with different states here in the US. I was feeling Nashville while he was feeling the west coast. This debate went on for a couple of weeks until one morning he came over to my house with an epiphany!

He woke up that morning and thought to himself “we’ve got the money, the time and the desire to go to Europe! And we should go!” After deciding, we booked our tickets and airbnb that following weekend.

So we are going and I cannot wait!!

-XOKriss

**travel images were taken by me on my last trip to Germany in 2015

Eastown Grand Rapids, MI

A couple of months ago and a couple of blog posts way ago, I visited my best friend in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In that post I mentioned how she is pregnant! Guess what? Her sweet Clementine June was finally born four weeks ago. And with that amazing news, Jacob and I found a sitter for Tyson, packed the Jeep up and drove the 5 hours north to nuzzle a bundle.

The rad bit about traveling with your love is that even the in-between moments are fun. We talk so much about life, travel, what God is up to and about where we see Him taking our future. There are a whole lot of different topics we have yet to understand or even face, but because of the heart of gold that lives within my guy and the hope that he has in the Lord- I know that we will find our way.

But for this journey! The stopping point was Marie Catrib’s in Grand Rapids, Michigan for lunch! They specialize in Mediterranean cuisine but have a long list of other loves, baked goods and treats! For me this was my second time back to this restaurant, and that was on purpose! The last time I went with Ashley and it was a huge moment for our relationship but it was also a stopping point along the journey to see another guy.

Ugh! What Kriss? You’re going to talk about an ex? Yeahhh, it happens. But really for where I stand now, that trip and what unfolded during it set the stage for my life to calm down, to focus on Jesus and to be ready for what love really is. So of course now that we are 50 days away from “I Do, forever and ever” it felt right to end that chapter in that way.

So, we order a pot of Turkish coffee to split, one falafel for me and one Shoarma for Jacob. It was his first time trying Turkish coffee and we can both agree that it went so well! And as we settled in for the grub, we had fun people watching and talking about our other approaching trips like… um our honeymoon!

(don’t worry, a full honeymoon reveal post is in the making!)

After lunch we walked about a mile down the road and found ourselves at Rebel Reclaimed, the coolest gift shop you could ever find! From stationary from Rifle Paper Co, gorgeous houseplants for the buying and quirky/crude jokes written on colorful mugs-they had it all! But one thing they did not have was a beer for Jacob.

We popped out of that shop and crossed the street to Harmony Brewing. He tried a couple of sour-ey beers while I sipped on a glass of ice water. Sometimes I wish that I liked beer and could enjoy bar hopping with Jacob but I’m not down with the flavors. My go to drink will always be coffee, hot coffee.

But don’t you worry, I got a treat! I got one scoop of delicious blueberry ice cream from Furniture City Creamery! I usually go for chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, never anything close to a fruit flavor but that ice cream was the cutest pair of bees knees! It was so delightful and perfect for the warmth of the day!

I think I can hear some of your thoughts, where is this amazingly, perfect baby that you traveled to see? Well since baby is so fresh, Ashley and Jake had a doctors appointment that started around the time that Jacob and I would be pulling into the GR. So this is why our day quickly turned into a day date! But not for long!

As I was finishing my last crunches of waffle cone, my phone beeped from Ashley texting me that they were home. So with walking hand in hand, Jacob and I got back in the Jeep and drove the massive 11 minute drive to the ripest clem I ever would meet!

Clementine was perfection. She really was even in her fragile state, she was incredibly strong. As I watched my best friend be a mom, and an amazing one at that, I was thinking about what this little girls life could be like. I’m so happy that Jesus chose to give her the parents that she has because if I know anything about them, they will love her, cherish her and fight for her!

For the rest of the evening in Grand Rapids we would continue to experience this beautiful balance of life, of slow moments, of treats and the feeling of summer time, of new friends and relationship milestones and one happy girl who I’m lucky enough to call me.

-XOKriss

Also one last thing! Before you roadtrip, you must brunch and wow did we need some brunch aka coffee for me! Look at that legit ” I woke up like this” face!

Our Engagement Moment

How does one pick and plan moments to be captured forever? How can a piece of technology capture the love that connects me to you?

On a Thursday morning waking up in the home of our photographers in Michigan City, Indiana and at 3:30 in the morning, Jacob and I held hands and bowed our heads together. Taking this moment to connect and to reflect on the heartbeat that is behind “us.” We prayed for the day, for our future, for our photographers and for our love to be captured in the moments that were soon to come. Using this engagement session as a time capsule for the years to come. So here is the evidence my friends: here is our love for the one we get to love, cherish, honor, support for today and the days to come.

/ / / The sun rises when you are near / / /

 

/ / / And all of my fears disappear / / /

/ / / You are the one I want, You are the one I want to love / / /

 

57 Day till: #itsharrisontime

 

-XOKriss

 

You can find our Photographers at: https://rainstormphoto.com/

Fierce Marriage: 31 Day Pursuit

This past Valentine’s day I decided to get Jacob some German chocolate truffles and a study that would not only cultivate his soul and deepen his relationship with Christ but it would serve as a tool to strengthen our understanding of each other, our special bond and our quickly approaching marriage.

To start off a blog about what love looks like and feels like, I must say that I’m thankful for Jacob and the kind of man he is and chooses to be. He was not only excited about doing the study with me but at times, he became more disciplined to get into the book which helped inspire me to keep trucking through the chapters and learning more about how God designed marriage to be.

This is praiseworthy to me because Jacob is praiseworthy to me. There are a lot of men in the world who would have just laughed at a book like this but because of both his excitment and serious understanding of its purpose, I was able to flourish and my heart grew more soft. That in itself helps me know, yet again, that he is the man I have been waiting for.

Because we live such busy lives and have a long engagement, Jacob and I have been slowly digging into our 31 Day Pursuit Challenge books. The books in of themselves were written to compliment each other with their corrsponding days but its a seperate read for both the husband and the wife.

After finally finishing the challenge, I can say with both hands down that I’m thankful for this time. I’m learning how to love Jacob in ways he best feels loved, it’s pushing me out of the mindset to treat my relationship with him as something commonplace and its uprooting places in my heart where my sense of “self” is so strong, stubborn and destructive. This book was both painful in dealing with my own truths and yet healing for the special relationship that’s in the bond of marriage.

One of my favorite ideas learned through this study and others is that when a man feels respect- the woman feels loved. It is a beautiful cycle and when it’s in action both feel life, love and contentment. Because when a woman doesn’t feel loved, she tends to not respect her man. And when a man doesn’t feel respected, he tends to close off love/affection for her. And vice versa, the two have to work together. However, those “rules” sound, its easy to overlook them but wow are they important when it comes to how a man and woman were specially created.

So I want to challenge you to pickup a copy of both the husband and the wife 31 Day Pursuit books! Yes, the books were desiged for those already married of which Jacob and I aren’t fully yet. But I did find that it was possible to tweak parts of the book that are strictly for marriage. So I do recommend this book to those who are engaged and are about to be married. I, however, would not recommend this book to you if you are either single or dating. But will say that the wait is worth it, press into God and look forward to my future blog post on the joys/struggles of singleness (I have a whole lot to say on that one).

Wishing you all well!

-XOKriss